This invention relates to apparatus for increasing the moisture content of air, and more particularly to an improved stove top humidifier having a variable speed fan for circulating moist air.
The furnaces of most domestic heating systems, and particularly those of the warm heating variety, raise the temperature of atmospheric gases, and thus remove moisture from the gases before allowing them to circulate. Dry air having a great affinity for water vapor tends to evaporate skin moisture, and in so doing tends to cool a person's body temperature. The natural result is for one to increase the quantity of heat provided by the system in order to provide greater warmth for the individual. The result is a great consumption of fuel in order to provide the additional heat.
In addition to causing personal discomfort, dry, heated air of the type described causes the drying of membranes in a person's eyes, nose and throat, and long term damage to the skin is evidenced by scaling, itching, roughening and wrinkling. Consequently, dry, heated air not only increases the cost of providing heat, it also introduces a health hazard.
To obviate the above disadvantages it is therefore necessary and desirable to add water vapor to the dry, heated air generated by such heating systems. Humidifiers of the type which have been designed to increase the water content of heated air have generally fallen into two major classes: one known as the pan-type and the other the jet-type. The pan-type utilizes water having a relatively large surface area across which dry, heated air is blown in order to absorb and entrain moisture from the surface of the water. Poor vapor distribution results because of the fact that, as a general rule, the warm air is exposed to the surface of the water for only a brief instant, and therefore cannot entrain much water.
The jet-type humidifier feeds minute droplets of water or steam into the hot air stream, which then absorbs moisture and conveys it to the rooms which are to be warmed. The disadvantage of this type of humidifier is that dissolved salts in the fluid supply will in due course tend to clog the orifices of the jets. Moreover these humidifiers are rather expensive to manufacture and difficult to adjust.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved humidifier which produces an extremely even distribution of water vapor into the heated air.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved humidifier of the type described which does not utilize any nozzles for generating water droplets, and consequently eliminates the problem of plugged nozzles.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved humidifier of the type described which does not require any connection to an external water supply, and therefore constitutes a self-contained, compact unit which can be employed on countertops, on or near space heaters, or oil, gas or wood stoves, or the like.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent hereinafter from the specification and from the recital of the appended claims, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.